Poly-A enrichment or rRNA depletion – how library construction influences RNA sequencing data

Both poly(A) enrichment and ribosomal RNA depletion are commonly used for RNA sequencing. Either has its advantages and disadvantages that may lead to biases in the downstream analyses. To better access these effects, an international team led by researchers from Sichuan University carried out both ribosomal RNA-depleted and poly(A)-selected RNA-seq for CD4⁺ T naive cells isolated from 40 healthy individuals from the Blueprint Project. For these 40 individuals, the genomic and epigenetic data were also available. This dataset offers a unique opportunity to understand how library construction influences differential gene expression, alternative splicing and molecular QTL (quantitative loci) analyses for human primary cells.

Study design of paired poly(A)-selected and ribosomal RNA-depleted RNA-sequencing